§ MR. SEXTONasked Mr. Attorney General for Ireland, "Whether he is aware that Owen Breheny, of Geevagh, county Sligo, has now been over nine months in prison, under the authority of the Coercion Act, on suspicion of having been concerned in an illegal assembly; whether Owen Breheny was, in the first instance, summoned to the petty ses- 1812 sions on the charge in question, together with a number of other persons; whether, whilst Brebeny was arrested under the Coercion Act, before the case came on for hearing, the other persons were regularly tried and acquitted; whether a person arrested under the Coercion Act on the same day as Owen Brebeny, and in the same neighbourhood, was released some months ago; and, whether, under all the circumstances, namely, the acquittal of the other persons, the release of a man from the same neighbourhood, arrested at the same time, and the length of time, nine months, that Owen Brebeny has been in prison, he will now direct his release?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. W. M. JOHNSON)Sir, the hon. Member asks me five Questions. In reply to the first three, Breheny was arrested on the 20th of June last. He was not summoned to Petty Sessions, but nine other persons were summoned; they were not acquitted, but were bound over to keep the peace. As to the fourth and fifth Questions of the hon. Member, it is the fact that a person arrested on the same day, and in the same neighbourhood, has been released, and Breheny's case also is, I am informed, at present under his Excellency's consideration.